Speaking of outsourcing …

posted at 10:01 am on July 11, 2012 by Ed Morrissey

Now that Team Obama has opened up a debate on outsourcing — when they really mean offshoring — they may live to regret it. They’ve been attacking Mitt Romney for having offshore bank accounts, but apparently didn’t bother to vet their own team very well before doing so. Yesterday, the Weekly Standard reported that DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz has some funds in Swiss investment accounts, although that is more of an apple/oranges comparison:

But disclosure forms reveal that in 2010, Wasserman Schultz invested between $1,001-$15,000 in a 401k retirement fund run by Davis Financial Fund. As the fund discloses, it is invested in the Julius Baer Group Ltd. and the State Bank of India GDR Ltd., as well as other financial, insurance, bank institutions.

“The Julius Baer Group is the leading Swiss private banking group, focusing exclusively on the demands of sophisticated private clients, family offices and external asset managers from around the world,” its website explains. “Bank Julius Baer is the principal operating company of the Julius Baer Group, with origins dating back to 1890. The rich Swiss heritage becomes manifest in the values for which the Bank stands, e.g. trustworthiness, accountability, discretion and expertise. However, at the same time Julius Baer is a modern, forward-looking company at the leading edge of a genuine growth industry.”

It’s a fun dig at Wasserman Schultz, who has been one of the more vocal purveyors of this kind of financial Know-Nothingism, but it’s not quite the same thing. Romney opened accounts on his own overseas, while Wasserman Schultz invested in retirement accounts whose managers invested overseas. It’s both qualitatively and quantitatively different; by that measure, practically everyone would qualify as an offshorer, including most union pension recipients, I’m quite sure.

A lot of attention has been focused lately on Mitt Romney’s offshore finances in places like the Cayman Islands and Bermuda.

But the word Bermuda pops up on the financial disclosure forms of one of President Obama’s top advisers too.

Valerie Jarrett’s financial disclosure form filed May 4 lists a line of credit from a Bermuda insurance company valued between $100,000 and $250,000.

Might be more to the point, but might not be, either. The line of credit comes from JP Morgan Chase, and it’s unclear why it was issued from their Bermuda branch rather than New York. ABC’s financial sources say that’s not unusual, and it doesn’t necessarily indicate overseas transactions on the part of the recipient.

On the other hand, Jim Geraghty has a good question about outsourcing under the Obama administration that does go straight to the point:

If offshoring is so bad, Mr. President, why are we paying the Russians to take our astronauts to the ISS? bit.ly/NgniLR

A Department Of Energy Study Found “That 60 Percent Of The 40 Largest Wind Farms Then Financed By The Stimulus Relied On Foreign Manufacturers For Their Central Components, Including Turbines.” “According to some critics, a galling example of the Obama administration fostering overseas work came as part the 2009 stimulus program. They point to millions of dollars meant to develop a domestic clean-energy industry that instead landed in the hands of foreign businesses. An April 2010 study by the Energy Department found that 60 percent of the 40 largest wind farms then financed by the stimulus relied on foreign manufacturers for their central components, including turbines.” (Tom Hamburger, Carol D. Leonnig and Zachary A. Goldfarb, “Obama’s Record On Outsourcing Draws Criticism From The Left,” The Washington Post, 7/9/12) …

Dow Kokam Received A $161 Million Stimulus Award To Build An Electric Vehicle Battery Manufacturing Facility In Midland, MI. (“Grants – Award Summary: Dow Kokam MI, LLC,” Recovery.gov, Accessed 6/27/12)In December 2011, Dow Kokam Admitted That More Than 180 Korean Nationals Were Setting Up And Testing Equipment At The Stimulus-Funded Battery Plant. “More than 180 Korean nationals are in Midland helping set up and test equipment at the Dow Kokam battery plant, but company officials say the workers are not here for the long haul. ‘These workers, who are Korean nationals, are not employees or contractors of Dow Kokam and will only be at the facility until the warranty runs on the equipment are complete.’ Dow Kokam spokeswoman Kristina Schnepf said in a release.” (Kathryn Lynch-Morin, “Company Official Says Korean Workers At Dow Kokam For Installation Only, Not For Long Term,” Michigan Live, 12/13/11)

“The Unions Insist They’ve Seen Foreign Workers Doing The Very Jobs Americans Could Do.” “The unions insist they’ve seen foreign workers doing the very jobs Americans could do. ‘The thing that was alarming to us was that there are people actually doing the work out there, installing the machinery, doing electrical work, piping work, mill right work, installing the machines in this plant,’ Mangione said.” (Sharyl Attkisson, “Unions Say Foreign Workers Taking Stimulus Jobs,” CBS News , 4/13/12)

Mitt Romney took his own money overseas. Barack Obama took US taxpayer dollars overseas. Which is worse? If Obama wants to have that debate, I’m pretty sure the GOP will be delighted to engage.

Doesn’t anyone else remember when Dear Liar gave a $2 billion (or more) loan to Brazil so Brazil’s state oil company could drill in the Gulf. And then he promised that we’d be Brazil’s “best customer.” It’s ok for Brazil to drill in the Gulf, but not us. Talk about off-shoring.

Never has the lefts hatred of America been so obvious than in this election cycle. The naked hatred of liberty, enterprise, and American values is on display. The only reason liberals think these are winning arguments is because they think they have (and may have) completed their long march through the institutions and know that the indoctrination that’s passed for education has softened generations to be receptive to this sort of message.

Something is wrong with you if you think having a Swiss bank account disqualifies you from being president or says anything negative about you generally.

Doesn’t anyone else remember when Dear Liar gave a $2 billion (or more) loan to Brazil so Brazil’s state oil company could drill in the Gulf. And then he promised that we’d be Brazil’s “best customer.” It’s ok for Brazil to drill in the Gulf, but not us. Talk about off-shoring.

Then there’s Jeffrey Immelt taking GE’s x-ray manufacturing to China. The same Jeffrey Immelt, of course, serving as head of Obooba’s Jobs Council.

As the administration struggles to prod businesses to create jobs at home, GE has been busy sending them abroad. Since Immelt took over in 2001, GE has shed 34,000 jobs in the U.S., according to its most recent annual filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. But it’s added 25,000 jobs overseas.

At the end of 2009, GE employed 36,000 more people abroad than it did in the U.S. In 2000, it was nearly the opposite.

While there are true technical differences in the offshore accounts, the general voting public isn’t going to bother with them. I guess only fair-minded political junkies and investment experts will take note. As for anyone else, I anticipate they’ll find hypocrisy in Oblow calling Mitt on his transactions while having people of his own ‘doing the same thing’.

That $2 billion went to Brazil soon after George Soros bought a chunk of it. On that same trip, Colombia received money to upgrade their refineries. While he was in South America, there was another public relations disaster, but I can’t recall it now.

Wasserman-Schulz also has trouble filing tax returns, but then she’s only a member of Congress & manages to fault Romney. Gottal love the part,”invested between $1,000 and $15,000, etc. That qualifies as disclosure?
As with her and Jarrett and all the rest, remember, a psychopath has no conscience, there is no “wrong”.

Of course you do. You have a choice: (1) a night of bar hopping with MadCon and Canopfor; (2) a day playing real life hunger games with ALT and HornetSting; or a night of intellectual debate with crr6.

Doesn’t anyone else remember when Dear Liar gave a $2 billion (or more) loan to Brazil so Brazil’s state oil company could drill in the Gulf. And then he promised that we’d be Brazil’s “best customer.” It’s ok for Brazil to drill in the Gulf, but not us. Talk about off-shoring.

rbj on July 11, 2012 at 10:08 AM

The Brazilians weren’t drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, but in the Atlantic east of Brazil. But you’re absolutely correct that the United States should not be giving Petrobras, which is owned by the Brazilian government, money to drill there. Let them drill on their own dime, and let US drill in the Gulf on private dimes.

A lot of Americans have diversified portfolios, its the first item on any advisers menu.

When you can look at where your money is. its hard to believe its so horrible that Mitt Romney does the same thing.

When the divider in chief wants to create another double standard, absolving himself in the false smearing of his opponent with what he does on steroids and everyday Americans have foreign investments anyway that doesn’t float the boat for libs at all.

For a preview of how this newest failed line of attack on Romney may play out for Obama in a debate, see Sunnunu’s destruction of Andrea Mitchell on this issue. I see this as another attack on Romney that will quietly pass away because the President simply can’t win this argument. Now, back to the economy and lack of jobs.

Del @10;08
I asked the same question when I first came here. I found out its bragging rights thing, especially for Bishop. I might have the record of 20+ posts before anyone else posted, I might have gotten more but got kinda scared, I thought the world ended and I was the only one left…..haha

For a preview of how this newest failed line of attack on Romney may play out for Obama in a debate, see Sunnunu’s destruction of Andrea Mitchell on this issue. I see this as another attack on Romney that will quietly pass away because the President simply can’t win this argument. Now, back to the economy and lack of jobs.

Ellis on July 11, 2012 at 10:40 AM

From the Krugman thread:

Andrea Mitchell owned Sununu. You could tell by her demeanor and his nervous and embarrassed laughter.

People need to look at the pics of Davis and Obama and Barack Sr. side by side by side. I have suggested just that to some folks, and the result is inevitably jaw-dropping amazement.

Some of the pics of Stanley Ann were out there in 2008, but anyone who made reference to them, let alone posted links, was assaulted as the vilest of creatures. But the pics, the resemblances, Davis’ pornographic writings in which he detail at length the relationship he and his wife shared with an underage girl, Davis’ “mentoring” of Barry, Obama’s creepy poem “Pop”, and other circumstantial evidence suggested to some of us even back then that Barack Sr. was used to cover up the real circumstances. Does this situation explain the secrecy surrounding Barry’s BC?

A whole lot of folks have figured out they were deceived the first time around about who and what Obama really was and is. It may be a vastly bigger deception than people yet realize.

Campaigning isn’t so easy when you actually have to run on your record and own up to your actions, is it?

I have to say, I think the RNC and Team Mitt have been doing a very good job of positioning. I’d like them to be more agressive and go for the knockout punch, but all in all. Much better than last cycle (McCain).

…but she is the heart of darkness in little Bammie’s corrupt and malicious administration. I have little doubt that she also ran F&F from the White House, and that’s the big coverup. She’s too big to go under a bus, she can put little Bammie under the bus.

All these proofs that Owe and his team are hypocrites really does nothing since I do not believe that there is anyone with an IQ over 50 that would actually vote for this POS. Yes, that means we have a very low national IQ.

We could prove that Owe was a Communist Marxist born in Kenya with video clips of him actually admitting it and his base would clap and cheer and still vote for him.

Of course a Bermuda line of credit indicates an overseas account. Such lines are regularly used to invest in overseas investments. Which is exactly what the Bain and Romney lines were for. Ask any currency dealer. It is simply easier to invest in non-dollar denominated currencies in certain banking hubs. And Bermuda and Switzerland have such institutions.

According to Pelosi’s 2011 financial disclosure statement, the Democratic House Minority Leader received between $1 million and $5 million in partnership income from ”Matthews International Capital Management LLC,” a group that emphasizes that it has a “A Singular Focus on Investing in Asia.” A quick trip to the company website reveals a featured post extolling the virtues of outsourcing.

“Designed in California, Made in Manila” sounds like an excellent title for a smear ad to be run the by the Barack Obama campaign. Instead, it appears to be Nancy Pelosi’s investment strategy.

Pelosi is also a small investor in the embattled “Moduslink Global,” one of the “outsourcing pioneers” that Mitt Romney has been criticized for associating with while at Bain Capital.

Mitt Romney took his own money overseas. Barack Obama took US taxpayer dollars overseas. Which is worse? If Obama wants to have that debate, I’m pretty sure the GOP will be delighted to engage.

How about an ad? 2 side by side middle America homes, each occupant getting their mail.

House 1 voiceover-When Romney was at Bain Capital, he put American investors’ dollars where he thought they could make the most money-some of which was overseas-and made millions of dollars for American investors-close up of account statement with rapidly upswinging curve.

House 2 voiceover-When Obama sent money overseas to create jobs in Finland and Brazil and Denmark, he stuck the American taxpayer with the bill-close up of bill showing amount due in red-have it be the current national debt per household (or per taxpaying household-which I think is about $100,000 now) with a big red stamp saying INTEREST DUE. Possible pan to couple with horrified looks on their faces, contrasting with smiling Romney couple.

Andrea Mitchell is another hypocritical limousine liberal along with her husband, Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of The Fed. Greenspan helped crush an effort by Brooksley Born to regulate derivatives in 1998, after the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management went bust. By the time Greenspan left office in 2006, the derivatives market had ballooned into a multi-trillion dollar casino, and Greenspan wanted his cut. He took a job with bond kings PIMCO and then with the hedge fund Paulson & Co.—yeah, that Paulson and Co., the one that colluded with Goldman Sachs to sabotage the company’s own clients with unregulated derivatives.

Incidentally, this isn’t the first time Greenspan has been a close associate of alleged fraudsters. Back in the 1980s, Greenspan went to bat for politically connected Savings & Loan titan Charles Keating, urging regulators to exempt his bank from a key rule. Keating later went to jail for fraud, after, among other things, putting out a hit on regulator William Black.